Film Review & Ticket Give-Away: Something Necessary

Nairobi Half Life came out much later than he should have, which meant Something Necessary had to be pushed to this year. The timing is eerily convenient. Elections should have taken place last year but they were also somehow pushed to 2013. Something Necessary will come out six weeks before go to vote again.

The opening scene reminded me a lot of the fact-based films that came out in 2012, most notably Argo and Zero Dark Thirty. Using actual event footage to set up a story and put it into perspective.

Something Necessary opening is more brutal than the film ever gets. Images of people being hacked, forced out of public transport to be murdered and finally, a victim crying after arriving at a camp.

Anne is one of the many victims of the violence that followed the 2007 elections. What sets her apart from other victims running to camps is her unusual eagerness to get back home, where an attack on her family left her husband dead and son in a coma. She is enthusiastic about rebuilding the place before her son recovers and come back home as if nothing had changed. Never mind her husband grave lies close to the home entrance.

Joseph, a young man, a participant in the attack, taken by the gang mentality, realizes the mistake he made having participated as part of the attack. This happens just when the group he was a part of is still being incited to carry out more attacks. And his breakout from the gang puts his life in danger.

In a fairly clever twist, he somehow makes it back on Anne’s farm just as she is rebuilding. He takes it as an opportunity to redeem himself. Both individuals are skeptical about testifying at a commission set up to address the events that took place in the area.

Where all these storylines merge is where I wish the film would have concentrated on: more on Joseph’s redemption, more of Anne resisting the urge to testify at the commission.

Something Necessary’s biggest plus are the lead actors’ performances. Susan Wanjiru as Anne gives one of the best performances I’ve seen by an actress on any local film. She carries the role with confidence you only see in established and successful thesps.

Played by Walter Lagat, Joseph’s choice to leave the gang leaves him isolated and the result is that he has very few lines throughout the film but he projects the guilt through his eyes well.

Yinka Edward’s cinematography is beautiful and the shots come off beautifully in the edits between the flashbacks and the present. Something Necessary was directed by award-winning director, Judy Kibinge, adapting Mungai Kiroga and J.C. Niala’s screenplay.

The One Fine Day Films Workshop has continually produced some of the best films from the region with Soul Boy, Nairobi Half Life and now Something Necessary.

You now get the chance to win a pair of tickets to the premiere which will take place on January 24th at the Century Cinemax theatres at The Junction. Kenyans will get the first look at Something Necessary but it will have its world premiere a couple of days later at which international film festival? Submit your answers in the comment section below.